Don’t Sell Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) Before You Read This

Simply Wall St
January 3, 2019

The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios).
To keep it practical, we’ll show how Costamare Inc.’s (NYSE:CMRE) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer.
Costamare has a price to earnings ratio of 22.09, based on the last twelve months.
That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 4.5%.

How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to pay a higher price for each $1 the company has earned over the last year.
That is not a good or a bad thing per se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Companies that shrink earnings per share quickly will rapidly decrease the ‘E’ in the equation.
That means unless the share price falls, the P/E will increase in a few years.
A higher P/E should indicate the stock is expensive relative to others — and that may encourage shareholders to sell.

Costamare shrunk earnings per share by 50% over the last year.
And over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have decreased 23% annually.
This could justify a pessimistic P/E.

How Does Costamare’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company.
As you can see below, Costamare has a higher P/E than the average company (11) in the shipping industry.

NYSE:CMRE PE PEG Gauge January 2nd 19

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Costamare shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification.
Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain.
So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling.

Don’t Forget: The P/E Does Not Account For Debt or Bank Deposits

Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization.
Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company.
Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

Is Debt Impacting Costamare’s P/E?

Costamare’s net debt is considerable, at 200% of its market cap.
This is a relatively high level of debt, so the stock probably deserves a relatively low P/E ratio. Keep that in mind when comparing it to other companies.

The Bottom Line On Costamare’s P/E Ratio

Costamare has a P/E of 22.1. That’s higher than the average in the US market, which is 16.
With significant debt and no EPS growth last year, shareholders are betting on an improvement in earnings from the company.

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about.
People often underestimate remarkable growth — so investors can make money when fast growth is not fully appreciated.
So this freevisual report on analyst forecasts could hold they key to an excellent investment decision.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

Simply Wall St is a financial technology startup focused on providing unbiased, high-quality research coverage on every listed company in the world. Our research team consists of equity analysts with a public, market-beating track record. Learn more about the team behind Simply Wall St.

CMRE’s investment overview

CMRE’s Competitors

About Us

Become a better investor Simply Wall St is an award winning start-up aiming to replace human stockbrokers by providing you with high quality financial data and analysis presented in a beautiful visual way everybody can understand, at a fraction of the cost (try our FREE plan).

Any advice contained in this website is general advice only and has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should not rely on any advice and/or information contained in this website and before making any investment decision we recommend that you consider whether it is appropriate for your situation and seek appropriate financial, taxation and legal advice. Please read our Financial Services Guide before deciding whether to obtain financial services from us. Simply Wall Street Pty Ltd (ACN 600 056 611), is a Corporate Authorised Representative (Authorised Representative Number: 467183) of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 337927).